Fallout: Forgotton Lands - Chapter Two The First Day
by thetrueCrystalvixen
Summary: Ambi has left her home and must decide what she shall do- finds her friend and sisters? Or complete the mission they were given?


**Chapter Two: **The first day

_"Trust is a two way street, mind you don't trip down it."_

Eternal darkness.

An unending black expanse of nothing surrounded me, pressing down on me. Oh God, I should have tied myself to my Vaults entrance, the stories were all true, I'm going to fall into the sky! I started to panic, as I looked out into darkness, believing that I was in a space of nothing, where I could fall away from earth with a step from where I stood. I squeezed my eyes shut, falling to the ground and scrabbled back until I hit the door. I gripped the surprisingly well-preserved door behind me for support, as if something so flimsy would keep me anchored to the world.

When I was a child, I remembered that my sisters had a sleepover in our room with their friends. They told horror stories, some pre-war, such as the famous Cow Cadaver and the Bandit Marauder, of course they had scared me, as many of the other girls were, but I was far more horrified by the story of what lay beyond the sealed vault door.

'Unopened endlessness' that is what Maureen, a girl with very wild brown hair, (it didn't want to be contained in her pony-tail) had said to me; that if the vault door were ever opened, that you would fall into a dark abyss, and be torn apart be an existence of nothing. That the world outside had been completely destroyed, so savaged and war torn that it had been blasted to basic form of nothing.

Though, there was another story, one that I favored more than the mundane terror of eternal falling. Belle-Dandy had told me a comforting opposite, that the world had not be reduced to floating dark abyss, that it had been turned into a bleak desert, scorched and twisted from the radiation and bombs. Before having the luck of hearing the horror stories of what lay outside, I had always thought the world was actually a huge atrium with endless light, fresh air and no bleak athletic teams. I was disappointed when the Overseer had once said to me that the world beyond would not give a quick death, just an extended life of broken sickness and misery. Inspiring stuff, very motivational.

With conflicting thoughts, I cracked open an eye.

Darkness. I closed my eye shut with an audible moan of terror.

I dared to open both eyes, waiting several seconds, realizing that my eyes had not had time to adjust to the darkness. I bit my lip, forcing my eyes open as I decided to tilt my head down and stared at the ground. Which was very dirty, the only place in my vault that was this dirty were the Harvest and Orchard level, which made sense with the fresh growing food and black nutrient rich dirt. From the ground, I slowly tilted my head up, looking out around me to gauge my surroundings.

There were walls around me. I was inside.

Glancing around, I realized I was in what seemed to be a very small room, no bigger than a maintenance storage room, opening into a t-section. Blinking, I activated my Pip-Boy light, leaving on its default green setting. The other colour options hurt my eyes; I mean all of them looked like neon marks that were too bright to be used in any situation. With the new bloom of light, I saw that the carpet bellow me was foul and covered in dirt, and what looked like white powder.

Looking around in the dim light, I wandered the left doorway that lead to a small kitchen, which was interesting to me. No-one in the vault had their own kitchen, just the vault cafeteria. The closest thing to a kitchen in a families quarters were usually cabinets lining a section of wall in the living room and a table for the occasions that people wished to have private meals instead of communal ones in the cafeteria. Though most families with their first child never had cafeteria meals until their child was old enough to sit in a booster seat in a cafeteria booth.

The kitchen, I noticed was clean- clean as it could be, considering that no-one may have lived here since the war, and by what I could see, it didn't looked inhabited currently. Sitting down at the table, surprisingly intact from over a century of time degradation, I opened my Pip-Boy inventory system, deciding that now was probably the best time to sort my inventory out. Quickly scanning my eyes over the contents, I had very little food to spare, and what I did have was not preservable in the least.

A thought entered my head, I had no idea how long my search for the second retrieval team would take, nor what the rest of the world was like outside, I decided begrudgingly to investigate the rest of the building and see what I could find, to aid my mission.

Within minutes I had emptied the room and sat at the table, sorting through what I found. Several boxes (embezzled with a smiling penguin with a top-hat made of bubbles) of Mc Pengy's cleaning powder, dull knifes, cutlery and crockery in various broken stages. Food that was _beyond _expiration date, a plate of mouldy mush that appeared to have once been fruit of some kind and several unopened cans of Irish Stew wedged between a bench and the wall. I proceeded to throw the cutlery, crockery and mouldy mush on-a-plate in a small crate that was already home to several rusted cans.

Retracing my steps, I walked through the right doorway of the t-section and into what appeared to be a living room. A heavily ransacked living room. All of the furniture, excluding a heavily stained couch had been thrown about or smashed to pieces strewn around the room, some thrown into an old fireplace. Oddly the most intact thing in the room was a coat rack- near what I assumed was a front door, with a moth eaten hat precariously hanging off one of its unbroken limbs.

Passing through the living room and past a set of stairs, I came across a small bathroom. Oddly there were several bottles of amber coloured liquid, hidden in toilet case. I only noticed because the lid was propped on backwards and for some odd reason I wondered if the buoyant compartments that measured the toilets water level had rotted away. Having spent my early life around someone who worked in maintenance had adjusted my odd thinking process. Besides that, I knew that Nathan regularly hid his pilfered goods he stole back from Marko in a vent near his bathroom.

Having thoroughly explored the lower floor I made my way upstairs, to an open area with another filthy couch and an ornate bookcase decorated with wheat sprigs and nature inspired motifs. Perusing the bookcase, I pocketed a couple of intact magazines and a book, from a rotted pile that had fallen through the two levels of the bookcase to the dirty carpet. There was only one room upstairs, other than the open aired seating area; there was a bedroom that took up half the floor.

In one corner there was a terminal on a desk pushed against an outer wall, next to it was a small coffee table littered with all sorts of writing supplies and pre-war memorabilia, mostly yellowed newspapers and coffee cups. In the far corner there was a queen sized bed, strangely intact, which I noticed someone had recently propped it up on some cinderblocks, the two bed side tables and old books to get at a safe underneath.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I opened the safe and found nothing but an empty ammo box and a few bobby pins. I threaded the bobby pins into my hair a closed the safe again. Beside the bed, I opened a built-in cupboard and scrambled back over the bed with a sharp cry. I stared, wide-eyed and breathing faster than I should; I whimpered and moved closer to the cupboard, closer to skeletal remains draped with tattered clothing.

Gingerly I kneeled next to the skeleton, tears in my eyes as I surveyed where he or she died. There, arching behind the skeleton was a built hole in the cupboard interior; the floor was littered with one shell casing, a tattered photo and a box of ammo beside the skeletons hand, the other wrapped around a revolver. Glancing further back into the cupboard, I pulled out an old military duffle bag, then pulling the blanket from the bed, lining the duffle bag with it and blocking any hole. I gingerly moved the skeleton, which promptly folded in on itself; the brace against the cupboard had been the only thing keeping it together.

Not to add insult to the remains, I carefully moved the duffle bag onto the bed to look through the rest of the cupboard. Several pieces of tattered clothing, several photo albums filled with dozens of photos, in which all but a few had rotted away. Surprisingly I found a small standard medical kit, which I pocketed along with the revolver and photos. Standing up, I noticed that on the highest shelf there were several crystal bowls and half-a-dozen trophies. Most were cracked, scratched and tarnished, rubbing the engraving below a logo resembling spread out sprigs of harvest goods; I tried to read the tarnished and faded words on the least damaged:

**H**#**rve**## **Awa**##

**2037**

I sighed.

Nothing of interest. Placing the trophy back on the shelf, I closed the cupboard and moved over to the desk and the investigated the pile of garbage. Sorting through the coffee table contents, I sighed again, finding nothing but a few headlines of a bygone era, _'Message of Death political murder case continues page 11' _declared one headline. _'War crisis rises, details page 15' _said one, beside an advert for Smith's razor blades half-off.

Taping the desk top as the terminal powered up, which was a marvel itself, still working a century plus after the war, a feat in engineering on Vault-Tecs part. I noticed that the desk had a change in the grain along the front edge. Drawing out one of the dull knifes, I worked at the wood, popping the wood free, revealing a small hidden space. For being a hidden space, I found nothing particularly interesting, a few sheets of paper, which most had degraded over time, a small recorder and a key. I guess the key had been for the safe; I mused as I and looked up as the terminal came to life with a sickly green glow.

My brow arched.

The terminal had a lock, I failed at hacking, nor had any tools for such a job. Biting my lip I let out an audible drawn-out sigh. I knew the basics, but beyond that; unless I had the proper connector cable, I wouldn't get very far. I tried my luck, entering a few words from lines of code, sighing for a third time as I logged out of the system and restarted the computer over and over. On the fourth try, I realized that the sheets, though faded may have a clue to the terminals password. Scanning over the sheets I noticed that someone had written, '_Vault -24' _recently in bright red ink. Just below that the original password, written in faded black ink was _'Before-war'_. I felt a pang of grief for this person.

Entering the new password, I saw that many of the logs were corrupted from age. Reading the first few uncorrupted logs realizing that the person who had lived here was male.

**_Entry 7)_**

_Just moved into my new home today, renting for now until I can get a better job. Better prepared from my nearly-finished degree, I am wondering what good it would be if the Y2K_

_crap is true. I would be more concerned about other countries that are acting too big for their shoes._

**_Entry 137)_**

_Brooke is married and has herself a couple of kids. Married my best friend, match made in heaven, if there is such a thing. On a sadder note, seems like only I am going to take on the_

_family's tradition, being a farmer and all. I have finally got around to house hunting._

**_Entry 212)_**

_It is a wonderful thing, I am happy here with ol Blue and Mrs. Right. She would clip my ear if she knew I said that. Has the same temper as my mother, but kinder. I am a bit concerned_

_about how the world is going, my sister is getting worried about the rumors. It is breaking Pa_

_and Gran's hearts, after all, they both know the terror from hard times on the world. I just hope that it doesn't come to what the media has been calling the 'Nuclear devastation'. Thank god Australia branched away from Nuclear energy 65 years ago._

**_Entry 296)_**

_About time I made a new entry, transferred my old entries over onto a new Vault-Tec terminal, retro is alright, least it isn't gaudy. My silly Daniel keeps messing with the keyboard; his mother and I are considering sending him to one of the Institutes for his gift._

_Still I am not sure about continuing my families farming tradition. I know my grandparents would understand rest their souls._

**_Entry 379)_**

_Daniel was shot yesterday, by some people that wanted to lay claim to what is planned to build under here. Damn Vault-Tec, no-one was meant to know._

**_Entry 381)_**

_I am pissed. There is nothing right in the world anymore. My wife is dead. She had been slipping away for so long, she was being treated for severe depression from the war, and she was getting better damn it! She shot herself in the head, holding Daniel's bear and his photo._

_This world should have remained how it was when in the 2000's. I buried my love like how it used to be, cannot even get her body back to her hometown with all the red-tape. Buried her where we met, on my grandparents' home back the way, under an old willow tree. She's buried with Daniel in her arms, she would have wanted it this way, couldn't bear to separate them._

**_Entry 417)_**

_My youngest cousin dropped by with her daughter (Dawn) today. We had lunch outside near the shed in the shade as Dawn followed Ol blue and Bess around. I asked if they have Vault tickets, being part of the government, she had several. I had received three for allowing my land to be used as an opening into a vault. Felt like a waste now. Only other person in my family that had tickets was Ami and her family. Her part of the family could sing better than_

_anyone else. She had made many beautiful songs in her life with her daughter, too bad it_

_was a life during war._

_I couldn't stand going underground when I knew that there was nothing for me there. I_

_insisted that my cousin take the tickets and give them to some friends. I just hoped they_

_never need to use them. Dawn said she would visit again soon, since they were staying at her uncle's home with her uncle. As she left, my cousin she looked at me sadly, and a warm smile such when her little one hugged me._

_I miss Daniel._

**_Entry 418)_**

_Red skies today. Not dust storms, just endless explosive evil. Can't believe that those Red_

_Sun bastards did it. Just after our resources, we cannot help that Australia was granted riches aplenty, only thing we don't have is uranium, (thank God) and oil for fuel. Good thing we changed our technology over to solar power and plasma fusion. Better than that nuclear terror, no Fukushima. Other than the tiny nuclear plant used for chemotherapy. Tiny place in a city, Sydney I think. Or was it Brisbane?_

_I had been visiting the grave with Ol Blue, when it happened. I maybe an old man, middle aged or not, I drove little cousin's family up to the vault, they were some of the first there. I was offered a place even though I had no ticket. I just said take Ol Blue instead. At least she would give a litter of companion pups for the Vault. I knew they had animals down there; Blue's family genetic was herding animals and being a damn good family pet. That's how they got Dawn inside, by lying through my teeth. Saying I would always be with her._

**_Entry 419)_**

_Never wanted to let her go. I'm sorry. So sorry my love. So sorry I couldn't save you and Daniel. I'm so sorry my darling… I guess it's time to be like my families crest, turn to myth and die, drain my crimson blood, no point in living now. Don't know why I continued before._

_Maybe because little Dawn didn't want to see me go. I don't know why, but I put her_

_recording in the hidden space in this desk._

_Danny had made the space, after he had broken the desk, rebuilt it and made little hidey holes in my room, still makes me laugh. Haven't seen anyone since that last couple, Henry and Mary, last of the Vault Ticket holders came in, just as a it started to snow. Never snowed here before. I know this is bad, just waiting for someone to come and trying to bust their way into the Vault. Wouldn't work. Cannot get into a vault when they shut from the world._

_Late last night a strange girl with dyed hair came through, she asked a bunch of questions, then left as quickly as she appeared. She was dogged by a stranger in a hood, might have been Asian descent, cautious of riots and the such._

**_Entry 420)_**

_Fighting and conflict, never seems to change._

_I think I'll take a nip from a drink and cradle my dear old Crimson chance, damn near knows that my cousin and her husband gave it to me as a gift. Said she always cared for me, that I was the only cousin that seemed to care enough about her father. I think now I should have given this to her before she went into the vault, keep it in the family and all that. I hope it doesn't waste away. Going to nap for a bit, in front of fireplace, looking through the photos._

**_Entry 421)_**

_Green snow, radiation peaking, dead, no matter._

_Enough strength to shoot. Goodbye Danny_

_Goodbye Blu_

_Goodbye my dear, your Jack loves you forever._

**_Log-out, Date-stamp 31st-10-2077-Disconnecting._**

I read those entries, over and over. Realizing that I was crying silently. My hands clenched, digging my nails into my palms, drawing blood. I didn't know what to feel. This man, Jack, he had lived long enough to lose so much. Died in the start of the new radioactive era, yet lucky enough to not see what had come after. I wished more than anything to give him solace somehow. As I was about to log out when I realized that there was another entry, however this one was dated just recently, a little over two weeks ago. I promptly opened the Log and frowned.

**_Log-in, Date stamp 23rd-9-2276_**

**_Entry 422)_**

_If you are from Vault 24, turn around and go back into the Vault. No more messing around, get back and wait for us. No sense in wasting more lives for our sake._

_Depressing stuff on this terminal. Could delete it, I am not that cruel to destroy what little remains of him. Bell wants to bury him, but we haven't the time. A group of people seem to be sniffing around this building. As much as it would be right to keep them from the vault, better to lead them away from here. Clarisse was smart enough to adjust her Security barding, making it look weather worn, make people think we aren't fresh out of the tomb._

_The sisters are scouting around, seeing nothing of value in this house. I had them leave some things behind if who I think the Overseer would send next. I hope he sends no-one, better yet that we complete our 'mission' finishing it and send the damn part and data back in time. Conscience tells me that I should leave some clues, but I doubt the Overseer told those after us that we were not the first group sent. As what I gather, Vault-Tec is hiding more than the safety of the populace._

_- Gaspar McBree_

**_Log-out, Date stamp 23rd-9-2276-Disconnecting._**

I sat there in silence for a few minutes.

I didn't know what to think, do I go on, try and find them, or go back with a copy of the teams efforts to the Overseer? I shook my head. My mother said so herself, that the Overseer couldn't risk opening the vault door again without any proof on my part of anything valuable. Everybody knew that Vault-Tec gave explicit orders to not upon under any circumstance, pending for the vaults survival. Closing my eyes, I sighed, knowing that I had to continue on no matter the evidence I gathered, just in hope that I would eventually come across my Vault dweller friends.

Opening my eyes I pulled the recording from the desk and slid the recorders interface into my Pip-Boy, downloading the recorders content. I decided that it would be best to leave, better to not let the team get ahead of me, or to find out what happened to them. Standing up, I stretched out my arms as my Pip-Boy beeped, signaling that it was done downloading, prompting me, I selected the first audio recording labelled 'For Uncle Jack'

_"Uncle Jack!"_

I blinked, and smiled. A child's voice filled the room, a young girl with a soft voice. A voice full of obvious joy and happy thoughts. _Uncle Jack, mummy says we will visit you soon, and that we can visit mummy's childhood home. The one with the willow and the old thing that people_

_sit in, um…. Gazebos? _There was a short pause and a tapping sound.

Gazebo? What on earth is a gazebo? Do you sit and watch things in them? Recite nursery rhymes about sheep herders?

_'"Mummy says that someone you love lives in the tree, does that make them a Dryad? Or an elf? She smiled at that, I said I would visit the tree and sing, singing helps plants grow. At least I think so." _She made a few thinking aloud sounds then the tapping stopped. _"I-I know that things have been bad recently uncle Jack, but remember that we love you. A-and you have Blue." _the young voice started to increase in pitch, _"Everyone loves you."_

The recording continued playing for several seconds as a young voice sniffled.

_"When the drills over, Í will bring Blue back, mummy says t-that you would not mind if I kept her." _she sobbed softly. _"I-I know she lied…. I know I will not see you again uncle Jack. I know you were being kind, goodbye Uncle Jack, we love you." _the recording clicked off after several seconds of Dawn's soft crying.

Wiping my eyes, I selected the next recording labelled 'Cousin's Offer', which seemed mostly damaged, I found it odd that I was not surprised to hear a woman's voice.

_"Moving on from the financial aspect of 2055," _a woman sighed, _"I am annoyed that this using your time Jack. But you are one of the people I trust for advice. I realize that your mother may have been cruel, but I am happy to see that you took a different path." _There was a short pause and a chuckle. _"I hope, we can have just picnics and good days, maybe that China and Japan are not fools, that the last two wars were not in vain." _a soft sigh and something shifted near the recorder.

_"I believe that your innovation of actualizing the mineral content the soil samples of_

_2400-Sydney would be one of the best places to conduct a survey for a better crop yield." _the woman let out another sigh and a flutter of papers. _"Why did I ever enter into public relations of ecological development? I was only put on this project because I grew up in the area. I wasn't smart enough to do anything else as a career…" _she sighed deeply as something in the background made a noise shifting about the room, followed by a sharp eep. _"What in the world?! Didn't I tell you I was recording?" _the female voice, obviously distraught from something eeped again as something moved behind her.

_"Well, seeing as this maybe the last time I see you before my next business trip~" _A decisively male voice purred to her. I had a feeling that this tape was meant to be edited at some point and that the female had forgotten to. To my ears the male voice seemed off, that he had a weird accent if anything.

The woman whispered shyly, _"No silly." _she was eroding to the man's childishness, _"Come on now, you know I need to send this tonight. You know the board will not be too happy if I don't comply. And you know how I feel about people hurting animals." _the recording seemed to have ended; I was surprised to hear movement and a chuckle.

_"It's okay, just relax, you'll be giving yourself a migraine or something frightful if you don't lighten the workload. The war won't end if you or anyone else burns themselves out."_

_"….I-We all have to do better."_

_"No one can change the nature of man sweetie."_

_"That's entirely what I am afraid off…" _a soft sob echoed in the rooms past, _"so afraid of humanity's folly." _with that, I heard the woman start to cry, and by what I could tell, the man was her husband, had taken her in his arms and held her. Whispering reassurances of a doomed future.

No. Just…no. I closed my eyes, a soft sob wrenching from my throat. What had this family worked so hard to do? Just how many families like this didn't have the opportunity for a vault space? They were of the lucky few that got a chance because of kindness, how many had died knowing their families had no chance for survival from a nuclear holocaust? My shoulders shuddered forward, I leant my head against the desk, muffling my building angst against pre-war survival, how terrifying it was.

*** *** *** First thing I had to do.

Get my hands away from my eyes.

Second thing, no, wait, scratch that. First, get my goggles from my pocket and put them on, then, unclamp hand from eyes.

Reaching with one hand, I pulled out a set of tinted black goggles and slipped them over my head, covering my eyes in tinted black concaved half-orbs. I reached down, my hand around the tarnished door-knob-

-and I took two steps back from it. Not yet, I just needed to check my weapons first. Yes… my weapons and inventory. Moving towards the stained couch, I sat down and pulled out the weapons I had; a prime conditioned ten millimetre that my mother had put in my pack, a baton that had seen better days. Did she want me to fail? Or was this all she could get? I sighed and brought out my newest addition- Crimson Chance. I really had no idea about hand-guns or any other gun for that matter, but I could tell, Chance was quite nice. Glancing at my Pip-Boy, I noticed that it took .357 bullets and it was in excellent condition. Once again I wondered how my Pip-Boy knew that.

After putting the first two weapons away, I moved the lovingly crafted revolver into my lap. The barrel was about 12centimetres long, engraved with neat and delicate gold filigree winding along the frame before the cylinder- which stood out on the matte black barrel and frame. The handle was made from a dark wood and was inlaid with a dark red grip- which felt oddly like carved stone. The oddest thing I saw about the weapon was that on the handle was a small emblem, a crimson griffin with sapphire eyes… wearing a tiny gold helm.

I sighed, wondering what the origin of this artistic work was, why was it built like this? Who made it?

There was no point to those thoughts now. I felt aghast at myself, for staring admirably at the revolver, the revolver which had taken this man's life. As beautiful as it was, I put the revolver away, with care in hand; I picked up the duffle bag and made my way back towards the entrance of the house. With a sharp breath, I opened the front door and stepped outside into the unknown.

Immediately as I shut the door, I pushed myself against it, staring out into the scrubby landscape.

It was depressing.

As far as I could see, the land was covered in scrubby brush land, with the odd spire of dead tree poking up as a skeletal hand. Shaking my head I looked up, and grew wide-eyed and vomited up my last meal. The sky went on forever, never ending blue; I shoved my head down, wiping my mouth trying to get my breathing under control. I placed a hand over my eyes.

I wasn't going to fall upwards, I knew how gravity worked. I wasn't going to die from this, I was just afraid of the big, big, oh very big space that I had never experienced before. With no walls… no roof, oh God, back inside! Need to get back inside! My mind screamed as I gripped the

door-knob, my body shaking. I heard a cry, a sound I had never heard before in my life. Cautiously I cracked open one eye, looking up I saw high above me a bird- something I had only ever dreamed of seeing, was flying high above.

Opening my other eye, I watched the bird fly away over the horizon. I couldn't run away, I couldn't be afraid, I had to get up and move on. While I built up the nerve to stand, I looked out at the landscape again, to see if there was anything I missed.

In every direction, the ground sloped down, which was odd, considering I had thought the ground would be a bit more even, like the Harvest level, with rolling dirt mounds and low sloping slants. All around there were scraggly shrubs and terrible looking trees that looked like they had been half burned, ripped at the bark and stripped near all but the smallest of leaves. Following the rise of a small hill, I saw something that shocked me- what on earth was that? I had seen pictures of them in pre-war books and on the library terminals, grainy pictures of houses, buildings. Theses did not look like any building I had ever seen, these scarred and tilting remains.

Looking right of that, I saw an old metal building, like a larger version of a the gardener's supply shed in the orchards. I vaguely remember asking why there was a shed there in the first place; I was told it was because it was wise to keep some of the orchard supplies immediately on hand. I guess walking a hundred metres was annoying when carting around dirt.

Without realizing it, I had stood, leaning against the door, staring out at the larger shed, and had trudged a few steps forward, scuffing the dirt.

My panic fading, I rubbed me hand against my forehead, realizing that my Pip-Boy was blinking with a list of alerts and new functions. Well, new as in, I had never used them before. Trailing my eyes down, I realized that a function called 'Auto-Mapping' had activated, which was odd, considering I thought that Pip-Boy already mapped things automatically, and the place I was in was labelled as Vault 24 entrance.

Turning around and taking several steps back, I looked up at the structure; I had been inside a humble abode, above the doorway I noticed that there was a rectangular mark where a plaque of some sort had once been. Surprisingly, the building looked well built for a home of sorts, I'd have thought that any building that wasn't re-enforced would have fallen down or collapsed in on itself long ago.

I walked over to the shed, realizing that it had only two walls left and that only a third of its roof remained. Looking around, seeing as there was no scrap metal or rusted corrugated plates, I guessed that someone had more than half of the shed away for their own needs. On the other side of the remaining walls I saw that there were a few piles of scrap, a fission battery, a can of gas with a nozzle with an old fashioned small lantern attached to it and a few broken bits and bobs. Such as a broken shovel, rotten burlap sacks and an odd amount of rusted saws.

After placing the lantern and oil in my pack I looked to my Pip-Boy again, I noticed that the compass function had activated, and a small arrow in the upper corner of the map-screen was

motioning south-east. A place if any to start, I sighed and gingerly moved the duffel bag strap over my shoulder and adjusted the weight before I set off.

*** *** *** I had never walked so much in my life.

Travelling for over three hours, which felt longer due to the unchanging scrubby terrain and repetitious skeletal remains of blackened trees. Walking, well, more like trudging to the incessant beat of my heart, and the steady breaths were my distractions from the ugly terrain. My thoughts wandered to how my sisters were doing, how the they were faring and why I hadn't had half a brain to bring a hat out of the Vault, knowing that there was a big bright thing above, like an atrium light if you stared at it, the sun.

Sighing as I crossed another hill, mentally kicking myself for ever thinking that these scraggily hills provided interesting features that my vault did not. I wanted the boring flatness of my vault, the boring flatness that didn't have the gall to dick up dust when I slid down one into a patch of cacti.

As I picked myself up out of the patch of pointy plants, plucking the spines out of my suit and brushing myself off, I realized that there were yellow lights flaring up on my Friend-Or-Foe compass. Carefully I crouched and made my way up the slope and peered over the edge- below me, I saw a shallow pond full of putrid grey-green water and several… things about

15centimetres long swimming in the water. Things that looked like ugly little tadpoles, but with paddle-like protrusions from their sleek sides.

Looking around, I picked up a dirt clod and tossed it over the edge, towards the waters shore- it hit just in the shallowest edge of the water, sending ripples across and scattering the little paddle-tadpoles to the far side of the pool. Glancing at my Pip-Boy, I saw no change in the yellow-bars. Satisfied that the weird tadpoles weren't a threat, I stood up and continued on my merry way east-ward.

After another hour or so of tedious walking, which part of was spent kicking random rocks I crossed to pass the time, I came across a pre-war bridge near a collapsed building with a sigh that read 'vacancy' in front of it. Oddly the bridge had fared well and had not decayed too much; just cracks, debris, several broken and rusted out cars. Though I was puzzled at why the guard railing was missing. It would make falling into the river really easy, especially with my track record of falling into painful places.

Humming softly I crossed the bridge… then I stopped. There was a weird looking reptile at my feet, a weird shiny reptile at my feet. I knelt down, picking up the broken mechanical remains and blinked. It was like one of the security drones I saw in one of Clary's _Mechanics of stealth _magazines- it was familiar, the type of reptile it was, several broken spines protruding from its elongated sleek body. The name of lizard was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't remember what the heck it was.

A high pitched whine cried behind me, immediately after I heard a soft 'thump' and felt something brush past my head. Naturally, I threw myself to the ground, broken reptile still in my hand as something else whizzed past my head again- but this time from the opposite direction straight into the river. The second projectile from the second direction grazed my cheek, sending a burst of pain inside my cheek- and blood trickling down my face as I heard panicked cries and an explosion. Looking under the car as I pulled a strip of bandage out of my suit as I

pocketed the broken robot; to staunch the blood flow, I watched the remaining attackers.

"Fucking bot!" a man shouted, I watched him move back and pick his fallen companions shotgun up from the ground, then pointed at several blasted apart bodies. "They owed me caps!"

"Scrap the flying drumstick! Strip it for parts." a second voice cackled from the first man's left. For some reason or another, the flying robot sounded some sort of battle music in response,

followed by a screeching cry; as the first male- whoever he was was cut down. I saw that much because I could see the pool of blood spread towards me where he fell. I muffled a scream as the 'bot' maundered away from the shotgun wielder; I recognized that the it was a sawn-off shot-gun, that had no shots left. He had to reload. Maybe he was smart enough to get to cover then shoot.

He was. A shame that he dived right over the bonnet of the car I was hiding behind.

The man grinned at me, as he had already slid two rounds into the shot-gun as he ran and raised the gun up just as he landed on his feet. My hand went to my 10ml, and was about to enable V.A.T.S when I heard another 'thump'. Taking my chances, I pushed off the rusted car, sliding over the bridges edge and landed on a bus half under water in the river.

My attacker had made it to the bridges edge, and screamed in pain as the projectile impacted with his legs, sending shrapnel and chunks of his body into the river. Instinctively; I covered my head and moved further down the bus to the river bank. After a few seconds of silence, I made my way to dry land, with a jump and a hop I landed on the scrubby earth and walked back up to the bridge.

I exhaled and looked around, trying to ignore the blood smears, I wondered where that bot had gone to. Looking back at the first rusted out car, I saw that the intact reptile was sitting on the bonnet. I was sure it was waiting for me. Cautiously I walked over to it, and stopped a metre from it. "Thank you for warning me." I said softly, I was sincerely grateful for not being dead right now- or worse.

The reptile made another cry, a soft warbling as it stretched out appendages behind it's back, and raised what I assumed was its head.

"I don't mean to be rude, but what are you?" I wasn't suspicious of this funny machine, if it wanted to harm me, it would not have saved me from those men. On the other hand, I was more curious, based on the fact I recognized what it was, a security drone. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what it was based on.

It chuckled as a hatch opened in its front and a small screen popped into view; showing a picture of a metre long living lizard, with a big mouth. Then switched the picture to a bat with a fluffy red head.

"You're based on a bat and a lizard? Like a hybrid?"

The machine made another chuckling sound and showed a cartoony animation, showing the bat and lizard combining; creating a winged lizard roughly one third bigger than the bat component. He- at least I think it was a he, or maybe it, raised its wings and craned its head, letting out a small chirp.

"Do you have a name?" I was intrigued; this robot was one of the most intriguing things I had

ever seen. Sure there were maintenance robots in Vault 24, and little cleaning drones, but this was something different. Something unique.

The flying reptile raised its wings behind its back as another image flashed on its screen;

MD-HP-1337

Well… that didn't help much. I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I mean, what are you? I know that you are a spy-drone, but what are you?"

MD tilted its head, raised its wings and snorted… which have been more impressive if everything didn't sound tinny and artificial from it. Its display flashed and showed another cartoony image of a large fearsome looking lizard next to a small detail of a human. A lizard with big teeth the length of my arm, wings over the length of its body and snorting smoke. That was a non-existing one at that- a dragon.

"Ah, so you are a robot based on a dragon then?" I smiled, "Are there many of you left? Since the war I mean."

A map of what I assumed was Australia popped onto its screen, showing little green dots everywhere packed together moving across the display, from coast to coast. "So a fair few left huh." the robot-dragon gave a shrug, I had to admit, it seemed more human than robot. "I don't mean to be rude, especially after all your help, but do you happen to have seen a trio of people come this way recently?" the dragon looked at me blankly, "I mean a trio that was like me. Pip-Boys, clean looking and well-fed."

The dragon winked its glowing eyes and shrugged and looked down at my wrist. Moving closer I held up my Pip-Boy, which seemed to automatically switch screens as the silvery-blue dragon switched it to the map display and taped several buttons. I looked at the map, the compass marker was still pointing west- but another had popped up, I cycled through my notes and saw that the dragon had automatically loaded something onto it.

Find armor, allies, and guide and better weapons.

I titled my head, "Am I really that hopeless?" I asked.

The dragon leant back and a picture of Vault-Boy winked onto its display screen. He was wearing his trademark Vault-Tec suit, then he got shot several times by an unknown source and promptly died with crossed eyes. Then the screen flashed white, showing the blonde man again, but this time in dark clothing heavy clothing that resembled a make-shift security armor. He got shot again, this time instead of having half a dozen bullet wounds he had one.

"I see. So better barding, weapons. Anything else, oh mystical dragon?" I asked, with a sly smile. "Oh, and friends" I added sourly looking down. In the vault I had only Nathan and Jene as my friends, which was hard enough to foster with them, how could I make new ones when it took the better part of ten years for them to become my friends?

Another snort, snapping me out of my reverie. Looking up I saw MD taping my Pip-Boy, MD added something and switched my screen again to the map showing a location about a hundred metres or so from where I was. "So, I need to go here?"

MD chirped and tapped m shoulder with its tail, making my look down at its display.

Good luck.

Be careful.

And with that, the curious spy-bot fly away. Leaving me standing in on the bridge wondering what a raider was. After a few moments I looked around the bridge, realizing that the dragon had blown apart anything save for a small ammunition box- which had two rusty cans, several funny shaped discs and a Taloona brand sponge snack-cake in it. While I munched on the delicious dessert, I continued towards the marker MD had added. I pondered over what MD had said- er, what it- heck, just call it a he. Sick of gender confusion. So I pondered over what he showed me.

Armor was something that seemed simply enough I guessed, I could buy- if there were people to buy from around, find or make some. Though making it would take a several days or even weeks, and considering that I didn't know how to tan leather nor had the heart to kill something for their skin either. Then I realized that I would most likely have to put on a dead persons clothing. It was a horrible prospect that I had been outside my vault less than four hours and had nearly been killed. Especially that I would most likely have to take the clothing of the next person that tried to kill me.

Weapons, that was a head scratcher. I knew getting weapons would be simple enough, seems like that was something the wasteland thrived in. Though similar of the idea of taking a dead man or woman's armor repulsed me, taking their weapons or killing them in the first place sent a cold feeling throughout my body.

Friends… that made me laugh. I had friends. Had being the prime word, what use would I be when I could hardly shoot, had little medical knowledge and had no average or above skills?

I was hard pressed that I would survive the day, let alone live long enough to find my sisters and

Gasper, or find a friend in my time outside the Vault.

Even harder to find, a guide. So far I had been shot at, nearly blown up in a few minutes, what were the chances that I would find someone who would willingly help a Vault born?

*** *** *** It was a day-care centre.

That's where MD had sent me.

I had been looking through my pair of binoculars as I was crouching behind the lone surviving panel of fencing that once lined a crumbled down house, looking out across the street at a boxy building. When I had walked this way, the sight of several houses made me smile; maybe I would find someone to help me on my way. That was until I realized that many of the houses were burnt inside, abandoned and that many were unstable and rickety looking. When I made my way closer towards the tagged building, I noticed an awful amount of people milling on the other side of the fence.

Looking through my binoculars, I saw that they were all dressed in the same horrid, cobbled together pointy armor that the trio of men on the bridge had been wearing. They all had the same patch on their backs too, a twisting snake, with gleaming black scales and bright red belly; bearing it's fangs at any ready to strike.

When I was directly across from the large rectangle building, my Pip-Boy beeped, like it had before when I moved a little away from the farmhouse; a new map marker location appeared. I glanced at it and saw that this icon was labelled _'Orana Avenue Day-care centre'_. Looking over

the squat building I noticed one of two things; one was that all the people on the other side of the fence looked terrified of all the people who wore the patches. The second point was that there were two people on the roof- both had mounted snipers on tripods.

I sighed, leaning my head down. How was I to get in there? Biting my lip I noticed that beside the fence there was an old cylinder made of cement. Large enough to hide in, but no way it would conceal me getting over the fence. As I made my way over, I noticed that someone had tossed some ratty clothing over the fence that had been used as clothes for cleaning and were covered in dry blood. Quickly I pulled the fouled clothing over my own and used some of the other rags to tie over my Pip-Boy.

Carefully I placed the duffel bag on Jack's bones in the tube, beside the bag I put some of my heavier and unnecessary items for the time being under the remaining rags. Lord knew that I didn't need all my stuff in a place like that. Glancing down into the far end of the cement tube, I saw that the metal fence had a gap, the metal bent inwards. Even though it had been over a century since the war, the metal wouldn't budge.

I guessed that it was a one way trip.

Scrabbling and pushing myself under the bars, I got through. Quickly I dusted myself off and crouched; sneaking my way past several snake patched men and the group of tattered people held in a pen with barbed wire mesh running across the top- I saw that there was a large lock on the gate. A large, fairly well looked after lock. Knowing that I would most likely need a key.

Sneaking past them behind a scraggly line of hedge bushes I stepped up onto a cement area and saw a door. Silently as I could, I moved across the cracked cement and snuck inside.

My eyes went wide as I clicked the door shut behind me and covered my mouth.

Corpses everywhere! Mutilated hanging carcasses, chopped and flayed bodies nailed to the walls and bookcases. Put on display like some perverse horror house! I downcast my eyes, staring at the blood slick floor, pools of blood congealing around empty soft-drink bottles, and rusting tin cans.

As horrid as it was, I gulped down the bile in my throat and dug out a clean scrap of cloth from my pocket and quickly tied it around my mouth- cutting off most of the smell, which added the bonus to keep out the smaller bugs that were flying around the decaying muck and piles of rotting viscera.

Unfortunately, as soon as I stood I heard something move on the opposite side of the room. I looked around for cover; the bookshelves were all against walls, all the tables were smashed, except one that had an immense pile of arms under it. My only option was a door that had the universal symbol for bathroom- well for a female's bathroom; in any case I darted in and shut the door behind me.

Inside something I saw made me draw up short and wide-eyed.

A man was standing at the remaining porcelain sink before a filthy cracked mirror, washing out a coffee cup. It wasn't the fact that he was a rough looking fellow, or the fact he wore cobbled together clothing that was cleaner than anything among the filth. It was that he wore the oddest looking hat, with a damn lantern hanging off it. Not a lamp-light, an actual boxy glass pane lantern with a candle inside.

When the door opened he turned his head and blinked when he saw me, "Why the fuck are you

in here!?" he screamed, dropping his relatively clean coffee cup.

I wanted to run away from him, immediately. I swallowed and pulled one of the cans of Irish stew from my near empty pack. "F-food. Told to give some to everyone" I quickly put it away and prayed that he bought it.

He walked over cautiously and looked me over, spotting my disheveled threadbare clothing. "I remember you, one of the new 'recruits'." he chuckled, looking around quickly and moved me aside. "Better lead you around, considering that everyone is trigger-happy when someone wanders around without a snake or escort."

I assumed by 'snake' he meant the patch on his back of the familiar wide-mouthed poison spatter. I followed him cautiously out of the bathroom, turning left ignoring a small room with several Vault-Tec terminals were shoved against a wall, which I ducked into and checked them. Only one worked and was fortunate for me that it had not password or encryption key. Smiling I opened the entries that weren't gibberish or decayed and scanned them;

Welcome Mrs. Kross-

Last entry was disrupted; please re-set terminal for maintenance.

**_Entry 32: _**_It's been a while since I had made an entry, odd considering that I have enough time every day to make one if I wished. Maybe it's the depression of the children… they have to deal with posters from the Bureau's everywhere, which must make day-care a haven for them._

**_Entry 39: _**_Yesterday Mrs. Dawson filed a complaint that her son had been spouting Red Sun propaganda at home. She is an activist and one of the first to join the anti-war petition with that young woman from the western part of town. Sometimes I believe children grow up to fast. I am more worried that they will not grow up at all._

**_Entry 71: _**_It shouldn't have happened… how we could… weren't prepared… so many children, so many innocent sick people. We were not a threat and this is how we are treated? Damn it, damn the Bureau of Public Affairs!_

**_Entry 92: _**_Oh god, I heard the bombs went off, I cannot leave the children alone, I am getting all the teachers to move the children into the Day-Care SUV and taking them towards Tamworth. Brendan, please get to the Vault, get Franklin and Henrietta with you, only way you can save our babies with your security pass. Mummy loves you Henny-pen and Frankie, mummy loves you lot's._

Last message sent, reply interrupted, please contact a Vault-Tec repair centre in your local area.

What the…? What was the Bureau of Public Affairs? I tilted my head an sighed, as tears threatened me once again. Had the mother made it to her children? I saw the genealogy of Vault Twenty-four a long time ago, history of the first generation of Vault dwellers, I never saw two children named Henrietta or Franklin… The world was something terrible.

I quickly withdrew my Pip-Boy connecting cable and ducked out to the hallway taking the taking the right I should have been following and down a hallway, catching up to the man. As we continued, I noted that everywhere there were posters geared towards young children learning and being good, though most were torn and covered in very disdainful vulgar images and words.

We passed several rooms, pretty much everyone was filled with burning trash bins, defaced bookshelves and toy-boxes full of body parts. The only one that looked relatively normal was a children's reading room that had been turned into a cemetery for books. Half a dozen of the books had been carelessly thrown against the wall opposite the doorway and were slowly rotting into a mouldy pulp. I would have thought that books would make good fuel, a slightly better productive way if they were going to waste them.

I wasn't paying attention to my 'escort' and of course I bumped into his outstretched hand. He glanced at me, as he went to a kneeling position and fiddled with something. Watching him carefully I noticed that there was a sliver of wire stretched across the floor that was held in place against one wall of the hallway, while the other went up into an air vent, where a small greenish orb was placed with the wire tied to a small metallic ring. A grenade.

As I balked the unnamed man moved his fingers with adept skill and disarmed the grenade easily, moved me past and re-set the trip-wire. He gave me a grin, and continued moving along the hallway. I followed him and took my time as we walked to look him over. Not in the sense that Clary would, I was looking to see how he was armed. Right away I saw that all he had was a crow-bar with sharpened edges.

Although, if he was adept with explosives, he could have anything up his sleeves.

Eventually we reached a room which was what I assumed was the Day-cares entrance; against one wall was a three seater couch, next to it were several low coffee tables with pamphlets and child-related magazines for adults. On the opposite side of the room was a water-cooler, which wasn't full of water. It was full of blood and eyeballs.

Turning my head away with a squirming feeling in my guts, I looked at the people around the decrepit room; all wearing blood riddled clothing and all had psychotic looks in their eyes as they drank various alcoholic drinks.

The man beside me coughed. "Everyone, I'm, going to get dinner ready now. So please don't have any snacks." he chuckled nervously, his nervousness was near the level of about to be run over by a tank.

One of the people, a woman with angel-winged hair looked me over and snickered, "She your new help?" The man beside me nodded as the woman grinned. I didn't like her at all. "Make it good, or we'll have to take it out on your new helper." she cackled and went back to the couch and proceeded to scream profanity at a man who took a swig of her beer.

My escort nodded, clenching a hand on my shoulder and back tracked us towards one of the rooms we passed that didn't have its door open. It was shut for a reason, as it had been locked. After a quick rummage in a dead pot plant near the door the man unlock said door and hid the key. The whole time he kept his hand on my arm, pushing me in roughly and shut the door, locking it.

I looked around the room, which was just a small room with a table, couch and another coffee table. Looking at the other side of the room I saw a set of counters, a fridge, and an industrial generic stove beside a shut door. I was pretty sure this was a teacher's lounge. Finally my eyes rested beside the door on a free-standing soft drink machine.

A Rosemans soft-drink machine.

I was sure I squealed then clamped my mouth shut. Trying to be sneaky here. Not spastically urging for a delicious carbonated drink that tasted like cherries. Realizing my mistake, I looked

at the man. He gave me, 'I know you are lying.' look and smiled. Smiled? What…?

"Who are you?" I whispered, still feeling his clenching grip aching on my arm. "Are you a raider?" he growled, leering at me.

"What?" I raised an eyebrow, what was that?

"Are you a raider?!" he repeated, his voice rising, as he dug his fingers into my arm.

"N-no. I don't even know what that is!" I cried, trying to uncurl his grip from my arm, "Please let go!"

The man stared at me, and then dragged me over to the fridge, which seemed pristinely clean unlike the rest of the building. Swinging the door open he forced me to my knees and pushed my head in, "Are you a fucking cannibal?!" he growled, placing a hand on the back of my head, forcing me to stare into the dead eyes of a decapitated head set in a metal baking tray.

Ohgodohgodohgodonapogostick!

I turned my head away and vomited between my knees, unable to handle the fresh stench and congealed blood. I started to cry, "Are you going to kill me?" so this was it, not even a day out and I'd be killed on my knees. Some rescuer I turned out to be.

He pulled me up to my feet and pat my shoulder. "If you were a rival raider spy to the Red

Belly's, I would, just to stop another raider in the wastes."

I slunk over to the counter-tops and collapsed, wiping my face on my already grotty sleeve. "Why?" I turned my face to his; I needed to know why he was cooking people.

"It is better I show you…" he whispered, leading me over to the other door, which I had assumed was a pantry or storage a closest, turned out it was something worse than the horror-house room I entered. Turned out the room was once an office, most likely the office of the manager of the day-care. Now it was a prison. All the furniture had been removed and a sheet of chicken wire and barbed wire had been run from floor to ceiling, sealing over half-a-dozen children behind it.

"Constantly I am threatened to cook people… if I don't be their damn chef of horror, or fix their damn weapons, they'll cook these kids…" he whispered softly, not taking his eyes off the caged children, who all had eyes of defeat and mistrust in their eyes.

"Why would they hurt children?"

"Because they are monsters. Filthy disgusting things, that gave up the right to be called human the moment they killed for pleasure, or ate one of their kind." he spat, moving back from the children and into the kitchen.

For a few seconds I looked back into the cage, realizing that one of them wasn't asleep; they had been nailed to the mattress and was cut open from his hips to collar bone. They were forced to sleep with their dead friend and among filth and refuse.

Tearing up, I moved back into the kitchen and looked back to the man, his whisky coloured eyes

pleading with me. "How do you know you can trust me?"

He gently held up my right arm, peeling back the rags and tapped my Pip-Boy. "Yellow be mellow…" he smiled, raising his own hidden Pip-Boy.

I nodded and fiddled in my pack, dumping the contents onto the table. "How can I help?" I knew

I wasn't able to shoot someone in the face; maybe at least I had something that could help him.

The chef gave me the tiniest smile as he sat opposite me. Glancing over what I did have, he plucked up the metal disks and some of the scrap metal I had picked up. "This is a start, we'll need to get them away from the kids, or kill them."

I blinked. "Kill them?"

He looked at me like how Clarisse did when I protested when she stomped on a roach. With a sigh he closed his honey-brown eyes. "I know you are just from a Vault, you mightn't understand this, but nearly everyday people die. Raider or not; sometimes people have to die when there are no other options..." he whispered as he looked over the metal disks.

After half an hour an angry knock tapped sharply at the door, looking up from the counter where I was cleaning out a fragmentation grenade shell and filling it with a strand of wire and wonder glue, I looked over to the man who had yet give me his name.

"Just a few minutes, just dishing it up like how you like!" he shouted over what-ever he was frying in the pan on the oven. Of course he wasn't cooking human, he had taken a slab of funny look meat, that suspiciously looked like a bug carapace and was frying it to stall what little time he could.

Turning to me as he finalized his plan; quickly telling me the details and strolled off without further delay, using an old trolley to deliver the raiders their dinner. I kept several metres behind him and stopped as he entered the front entrance; where I peeked in from the doorway.

"About fucking time." the nearest raider growled then swore again as the angel winged woman back handed the raider with a growl.

"Get the fuck back meat!" she screamed, standing beside the large pot, tapping the top. No sooner had she done that, the disobedient underling came back swearing obscenities at her. With a leer, the angel-haired woman gave a bitter smile and raised a her .48 magnum and shot him in the head.'

"Meat go boom." another raider chuckled, chewing on his bottom lip.

Angel-wing smirked, licking the splattered blood off her lips and turned back to the pot. "Okay, first, get your asses up; second get the fuck in a line. Maybe raiders, but we are fucking Reds and we have respect know who's in charge." she snorted, turning to my unnamed companion, "Vince, get your ass to your new girl, either tell her to fucking calm down and grow some or put her in the next pot."

Vince, which I now knew, smiled half-heartedly trying to hide his obvious rage. "Of course Angel…" he nodded and backed away, motioning his lips; counting down from ten as Angel kept talking on.

"I said get in line you fucks!" she roared, slapping one upside the head.

Vince nabbed my arm, pushed me into a broom closet as-

**BOOM!**

-shrapnel blew outwards from all directions as the disks- which Vince had informed me were called landmines, which were a type of explosive. Possessing all manners of explosive talent he wired the landmines to the pots lid, which would explode when the lid was removed above five centimetres.

Looking up at Vince, I realized why he wore that God awful lantern on his head; it was to hide the fact that his eyes were cybernetic. He gave me an awkward smile; blinking and looked away. I wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or just didn't want to freak me out.

Coughing he pushed against me, exiting the broom closet and drew out his crowbar surveying the Day-Cares entrance; which was now spattered with blood and viscera that had been near ten bodies blasted apart. Clenching my jaw; I swallowed and strode forward with Vincent at my side as he started picking up various weapons that weren't turned to twisted pieces of metal or splinters from around the room.

"There are only nine bodies here…" he whispered, standing tall with several shot-guns,

make-shift melee weapons, low-grade pistols in hand. He plonked half into my pack and settled the rest on his belt as he strode past me: he jammed two of the crowbars into the doors, ducking taping them around the middle and successfully blocking them door.

Giving me a cocky smile; Vincent walked past me, urging me to move to the play-ground entrance where I had originally entered and help him hold position for the remaining Red Belly raiders.

I was in no way eager to take up point by the rear door waiting for several murderous men and woman to kill me. I gritted my teeth as the door handle drew down and snapped up as someone entered, pulling my 9mml up and looking down the sight.

A group of two raiders grinned, rolling several green orb-like objects inside, which prompted both

Vincent and I to dodge back into the hall as our pursuers cackled with murderous glee.

Leaning back against the wall, I glanced over to Vince; who had loaded his shot-gun with orange banded rounds. Bending his head, he waited for footsteps inspecting whether or not we were blown to bits. Once the raider stepped around the corner, his eyes widened and he drew a less than cared for SMG to bear and started to fire pot-shots.

As soon as he started to fire, Vince ducked, propping up his knee and jammed the shot-gun under the male raiders jaw and plastered bone and brain against the ceiling, setting the body alight in a red glaze. Ducking back against the wall before the raider fell to the ground in a burning heap, the other raider had been two steps behind and got a sweep kick under her legs from me and a boot slammed down on her chest, winding her. She let out a pained grunt, reaching for her shot-gun as I kicked it away, clattering across the viscera coated floor.

Even in obvious pain, she drew a knife from her belt and kicked my legs out from under me, pinning me against the floor as I fell. Rolling over me, she snapped at my face, bearing her yellowed teeth with a cackling snarl. Raising her kitchen knife she shouted in murderous glee as she came down. I clenched my eyes shut, ready for death even as hard as I tried to keep her hand at bay and her mouth from any vulnerable flesh.

A crack echoed in the room as Vincent kicked the raiders head, sending a snap in her jaw, she

screamed rolling off me clutching her jaw. My savior pinned her to the ground, for a moment he stopped, staring into the almost luminous blue eyes of the thrashing raider between his legs. He gave a small, but sad smirk and something that parried with regret and denial.

He snapped her neck.

Standing, the once gruesome chef looked at me and nodded for me to follow him outside. As I followed him, I looked at the dead woman's face. Was she important to him? Always questions and never answers in my life.

Quickly we crept under the hedge; crawling on our bellies behind a pair of raiders who stared aimlessly at the sky. Vincent nodded towards our right; I had to distract these two. I guessed correctly that is was time for food delivery again…

I stood by the side door of the day-care, holding a tray with a pouch on one hand and pushed my other back, slamming the door against its frame. The two raiders turned, eyeing me with suspicion as I down cast my eyes and held out the tray trembling. "Angel told me you both have to have dinner," thrusting out the tray I mock whimpered, "She wishes the children to be… be prepared." I swallowed and dared to look up.

The raiders had wandered past me, two feet behind me when Vince jumped out and blasted both from behind, splattering the decayed wall with bits of gore. I bent my head as he scrambled to grab whatever ammo he could and pulled me against the day-care wall clamping a hand over my mouth and pointed upwards; the snipers on the roof. Leading me around, he lead me up a rather rickety and rusted stair case bolted into the wall.

Climbing upwards I eeped, realizing I had never been anywhere this high in my life, well the Atrium upper landing didn't count. At least that was secure and not wasted away in two-hundred year old destruction to natures elements. I kept close the wall and winced as Vince stood, calling out to the two snipers.

"Hey, you guys! There's been an attack!"

"We know cunt!" one screamed as a round near missed my ear by a few inches. To which I flattened myself to the ground and balked as the two snipers switched weapons, drawing down twin welders masks and drew out something that I would never forget. Shining strong metal barrels that emptied torrents of fire at me, scorching the cement roof- flame-throwers.

"Oh God anal probe you with the sun!" Vince screamed running back to the fire escape, jumping onto the rotted and rusted metal screeching under his weight.

"You first you bloody drongo!" the other raider cackled; switching the levers on his

flame-thrower, changing the intensity of the flame. Creating a wall of blue white flame that melted the air-con above me, dripping lethal metallic drops of heat a foot from my head. They continued their onslaught, as we waited for an opening and threw something that Vince and I had cobbled together. Well mostly Vince, I just drank Rosemans drinks and watched him with interest.

The orb rolled behind them, exploded with a thump, shooting out a canister of nails and

ball-bearings impacting with the raiders legs, slashing at their bodies and striking at the tanks. A few lucky bits of shrapnel hit the flame-thrower gas tubes, tearing them open, spewing the gas into the air.

The two raiders screamed, turning their flamethrowers off, knocking them off their backs and retreated to the air-conditioner on the roof to resume taking pot-shots and Vince and I. We didn't give them that chance; I kicked out at their already weakened legs crushing them against the still-cooling metal which combined with the bare flesh and searing metal. Screaming murder, the first sniper came to a bloody end when Vince right-hooked him off the roof while the other raider cried in agony as he cut his legs free, slapping medical bandages on his searing calves injecting several Stim-packs as he raised one last trick, a beyond macabre chainsaw.

It had skulls dangling from its grip.

Looking to Vince, who had lost his shot-gun over the fire-escape and his crowbar, had been holding the front entrance barricaded. I gulped, taking the stance I knew from practice. Entering V.A.T.S, time slowed around me; I lined up shots and fired.

The raider's weapon swung into the air; carving into the roof, squealing to a stop, as one of the raider's hands slapped wetly beside it. Said raider howled in agony, glaring at me, he ripped his shirt off, tying it around his bleeding stump and injected something into his wrist. Standing, he walked towards his chainsaw, ready to take it up again.

One shot, I could do it. One shot to kill.

After all red means dead. I choked up; looking to Vince he gave me a sardonic look. Turning back to the struggling raider I gasped. "Stay down." he continued to move, the fire had seared his mask to immense temperatures, the gas had swept underneath, blistering skin. "Please… p-please stay down!" blood pumped into my ears, drowning out my thoughts in fear.

Stubborn, insane, murderous… he just didn't stop.

Grasping the handle of the buried chainsaw; the raider let out a crazy laugh, rising in pitch and volume. I felt tears beckoning, why couldn't I do it? Why? A murder, cannibal, a living

psycho-path! Vince slipped beside me, wrapping his hands around the 10mml, taking it as the raider started the chain-saw and screamed in pure delight, ripping the welders mask off, revealing an insane grin with a blistered face and a burned, smoking eye.

I closed my eyes as the shot rang out in my ears, the sound reaching out eternally as the raiders grin was forever etched into my mind.

"Red isn't always dead…" Vince whispered, wrapping an arm around me. The blinding pain in my body and mind, threatened to drag me down into darkness, I felt a prick in my arm, glancing down I saw a syringe as I lost consciousness.

I hurt. Badly. I felt like something had clawed at my ribs and set several on fire. As well as my head, thumped with a theme of battle drums. Then I realized that death should not hurt like this.

Even worse, I realized I wasn't wearing my suit.

Tilting my hips to roll over, I realized that it was a very bad idea and whimpered. Biting my lip I looked out of my peripheral vision that I could see, the group of children were sitting around one of the burning trash bins talking in soft voices, while Vince watched them with a wary eye.

Gingerly I moved my fingers over my ribs and hissed; bad idea to touch shot ribs.

My ears twitched as I turned my head; seeing the red haired man smiling behind me. "You okay?"

"What happened?" I whispered, feeling an odd burn in my arms. I remembered something happening in my consciousness and drugged mind. Something bad. "Are the kids alright?"

"On the way back, seems like the raider I punched off the roof had managed to survive. He didn't take that too kindly to that and decided to take it out on you by jumping us in the hall-way. He didn't get far because he triggered one of the trip-wires." he coughed nervously, "A bit of derbies, a child's ball smacked you with enough force to bruise your ribs."

"Nnnn, why?" I whimpered, trying in vain to push myself off my stomach. If he had not come back I would have left him alone. Why did kindness get thrown back in my face all the time?

"Cause you were trying to steal people's meals lady. I mean Joey gets mad when someone steals his food." a little boy stated, nodding to a small Aboriginal boy with dreadlocked hair. He looked up and smiled, waving a can of Cram at me. Glancing around, I noticed that all the kids were eating various kinds of pre-war food. I groaned again, trying to roll my butt out of bed.

"Who took them down?" I asked groggily, realizing that I must have been dosed up with Med-X and some medical salve. I hope the children hadn't been forced to kill, as terrible as it was, I hoped that Vince had shot the raiders.

"Oh," one of the kids piped up, a little girl with brown hair so poufy that wouldn't stay in her pony-tail, smiled. "I did that!" I blinked as she giggled as one of her friends licked some orange powder off her cheek and proceeded to rip open another pack of vibrant orange treat.

"Y-you did that?" I balked, and watched her play with a gun as if it were a toy, spinning it in one hand and slid it with ease back into its holster. Even though I wished I had that dexterity to do something as cool as that I sighed. I realized that she knew it wasn't a toy, she knew how to use it and she wasn't going to sit back and be shot at.

Looking around, I didn't understand why raiders were butchering and eating people when they obviously had other things to eat. Even if the food was pre-war and obviously had so many preservatives in it, it was most likely to keep your corpse alive for decades after your mind died. I looked at the poufy haired girl and nodded to Vince, hoping he helped me up.

Sitting up I grimaced and exhaled. "So, can someone give me something to eat, their name and how you got here in the first place; or should I regale my pain to you all?" I added with a long groaning sigh.

The boy called Joey opposite me shrugged and tossed a box of Taloona cakes into my lap. Snagging them up, I ripped open the pack and chomped down on the jelly filly bun, moaning in sweet delight.

"I'm Doreen." A girl with stark black hair smiled at me, she motioned in the half circle clockwise, "Me, Joey, Tinny-Pop, Paul, and Tuni come from Lone. And Lexie came from Col's a little bit east from here. We were on our way back with a job completed for Prospectors Seven."

Hm, no idea if Lexie and Tuni where their real names but I shrugged. At least Tinny-Pop looked normal. "Um, I'm Ambi Winter."

"And of course you all know me." Vince smiled, ruffling Lexie's hair, to which the young boy made an odd gurgling sound, his green eyes shining.

"I've heard som' funny names, but Ambi is just a plumb nutter of one. I mean we have Alex and Petunia, but nothin' weirder than yours." Tuni piped up; pulling strands of string out of her choppy black hair and used them to tie up her half eaten Azure cookies and put them in her pocket.

Doreen stepped over littered cans and sat next to me with a wide cheeky grin, "You may not be a fighter, but you have a knack for picking up some good stuff. I mean that too; using them bobby pins to open a safe, never thought that. Especially using a screwdriver too."

My red haired companion chuckled, giving me a grin. "We used most of the bandages you found in the nurses safe on your ribs. Had to dig out a damn shard of shrapnel too, sorry about that."

I shrugged and shook my head; first day in the waste and I had scraped by, nearly losing my life to a bunch of cannibal jerks that had raped, killed and ate people on a regular basis.

What would happen in a week, or a month? My bet was more bullets and near death shaves before I got even a kilometre within reach of my sisters and Gasper.

One hell of a kilometre…

- Footnote: Level up!

**New Perk**: Educated Vaulter: Being around so many books, a learning place of smart people has made you realize how good you had it in your home vault, realizing this you vow to learn more and keep it. You add +2 skill points each time you gain a new experience level.

**Bonus Perk: **Child-like delight: Due to your understanding of children or perhaps your smaller than average stature, you are more likely to appear a non-hostile to adults who are related to a child.

(When coupled with Child at heart; grants the ability for you to be kinder and better understood by children who would otherwise spit in your eye than listen to you.)

**Companion perk-**

As long as Vincent is your Companion~

Step lightly: You excelled at not activating any explosive traps during your exploration of a children care facility and among raiders, your companion is impressed and has granted you tips at a 50% chance to by-pass traps, lock picks and explosives below the level of 40.

(Add characters skill for higher chance.)


End file.
